Jordanian MPs: No peace deal with ‘deceitful’ Jews

Parliamentarians cite religious sources to ‘prove’ Palestinian right to all land, impossibility of reconciliation with Israel

Jordanian lawmakers speak during the second day of a heated debate on the US push for a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, under the domed parliament chamber in the capital, Amman, Jordan, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014 (photo credit: AP Photo)

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In a parliamentary session dedicated to peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Jordanian lawmakers turned to Christian and Islamic sources to buttress claims that no accord would be reached, and framed the conflict with Israel as an age-old religious battle.

“There is a dispute of faith between Judaism, on the one hand, and Islam and Christianity on the other,” MP Muhammad Al-Badri said at the session on Monday, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “Therefore, no solutions will be achieved here – neither by John Kerry, nor by anybody else.”

MP Tareq Al-Khouri echoed the sentiment, pointing to the nature of the Jews, namely “deceit,” as the reason a peace agreement were doomed to fail. “My problem with the Jews is a religious problem,” he said.

“In John 8:44, Christ addresses the Jews and says: ‘You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth’ – in other words, the peace accords are nonsense – ‘because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.'”

MP Zakaria Al-Sheikh, in his address, quoted passages from the Quran that “Judgment Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims will kill them” and “You will fight the Jews – you to the east of the river and they to the west of it.”

The Palestinians are the rightful owners of the entire land, Al-Sheikh maintained, and therefore an agreement “must include the return of every inch of historical Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, must guarantee unconditional Right of Return for Palestinians worldwide, and must provide just financial and international compensation.”

Increasingly hostile voices towards Israel have emanated from the Hashemite Kingdom — Israel’s closest ally in the Arab world — in recent years. After a Jordanian MP attended Israeli Independence Day celebrations at President Shimon Peres’s residence in Jerusalem, his fellow parliamentarians called for his dismissal.

When Walid Obeidat accepted King Abdullah II’s appointment as Jordan’s envoy to Israel in October 2012, he was ostracized by his entire clan, which marked the date with black banners and a public day of mourning.